By Leago Takalani, Chief Executive Officer: Luvhone Engineering & Consulting Partners
Networking is a business essential – and it’s most effective when it’s approached as a human interaction, not a business transaction.
Building lasting relationships that cultivate interpersonal and professional relationships that have an impact on economic development is essential in the modern business world – and I think women have the potential to be the business world’s most powerful networkers.
As an introvert, networking does not come naturally to me. Early in my career, networking used to be a daunting task, but I later came to realise that my biggest fear about networking was the internal battle around making conversation with a stranger.
During my time in the aerospace sector, I attended a conference dinner networking event at the Africa Aerospace and Defence week, full of ranking officers and outstanding pilots in the aviation industry from around the world. It was by sheer chance that I found myself with a VVIP entrance ticket amongst such highly accomplished people. Our CEO was not able to attend, and I ended up attending on his behalf.
As usual, I headed straight to the back of the room to find myself a place that was not prominent – and spotted an unoccupied table. I thought it would be the perfect vantage point from which I could gather internal strength while scoping out who was in the room, before finding the courage to introduce myself.
Just as I was settling down, a group of gentlemen in full regalia approached my table, including one dressed in impeccable Air Force uniform, adorned with many decorations. I was grateful that I was dressed for the occasion, which helped quell my inner introvert voice and allowed me to step forward confidently into an unfamiliar situation. He introduced himself as a Colonel and we started talking – the conversation was easy and didn’t seem forced. After a meaningful chat, it turned out that he was also a friend of one of the Chiefs of the Air Force I needed assistance with on a project I was working on. What flowed from that chat was a professional relationship that was based on humility, authenticity and meaningful purpose that made a difference for both our countries.
My learning from this experience was that it’s always important to engage people on the basis of them being another human being, rather than their status. Even if the person is a junior in their field, I see no reason to treat them any differently.
I have seen instances time and time again where people’s air of superiority in engaging with someone younger or less experienced has shifted the instant they learned that person was related to or employed by a very influential person that they needed in the course of their work.
I’ve learned that networking should not be a burden or a process, but an understanding that we all need each other as human beings in order to pursue the common objective of building successful businesses and having a meaningful impact in the course of our personal and professional journeys, whilst creating opportunities for others that could change lives.
This is possible when the power of networking is pursued from a place of authenticity.
Luvhone Engineering & Consulting Partners is a recipient of support from the MultiChoice Innovation Fund (MIF) and Leago participated in MultiChoice’s ‘She Can Be’ campaign, chatting to Claire Mawisa about engineering new frontiers.
Leago Takalani, Chief Executive Officer: Luvhone Engineering & Consulting Partners
